pilotdad1 wrote:Best part of this game was seeing Nancy Barker sitting with Riley behind the bench. To take the time and effort to drive down from Vancouver BC despite her son not being able to play speaks volumes for the Barker family and the commitment to the program. Kudos

Yeah. I talked to them before the game and asked about the surgery. Riley said everything went well and the thing now is rehab.

They both seemed about as upbeat as could be expected, and was there for the celebration with his team mates.

KB played much better in the flow of the offense. Most of his shots were not forced. He had a couple nice assists from passing the ball when he drove to the basket.

Our defensive rebounding was awful. We gave up 19 offensive rebounds...granted we got 21 offensive rebounds. Voldy with no defensive rebounds. Jason Todd...zero rebounds...although was aggressive on the one play diving out of bounds.

So we hit a buzzer-beater to win a televised basketball game and we all want to kibitz about student apathy, marketing, and game operations? There's just no winning with some of you people! Have some JOY that we got to watch our student-athletes compete their hearts out for the Purple. The players certainly showed some when Alec hit that shot.

Pilot2002 wrote:KB played much better in the flow of the offense. Most of his shots were not forced. He had a couple nice assists from passing the ball when he drove to the basket.

Our defense on free throws improved...but Pacific's was even better.

Agreed, KB was much more into the flow....it seemed obvious he was looking for opportunities to find his open teammates for the better shot. He had 3 assists and zero turnovers, and although his shooting accuracy was below his norm, he hit some badly needed clutch shots and led all scorers.

Ha-ha, yeah the Pilots are no longer last in the nation after tonight's game. They've moved from 351 to 345 in D1 basketball for free-throw percentage defense.....

Alec's second buzzer-beater 3-pointer of the year. And both occurred in games when he played relatively poorly overall. What a great finish! I was jumping in the aisle!

A few other thoughts:

As DD said, Voldy really saved the day with his offensive rebounding in the last couple of minutes, after VDM fouled out, despite having four fouls. And he hit a big shot from the top of the key.

What's with Tyson? Is he being disciplined? He hasn't played a single minute in the last two games.

KB played well, although he did force a handful of bad shots (per usual). He had some really nice assists.

VDM looked better on offense, and pulled down some strong rebounds, which is encouraging with Waldow coming in on Saturday.

Pacific had 6 offensive rebounds in the first 4 minutes of the game.

A conversation overheard between two fans behind me:"Why isn't there a student section?""There is. It's over there (pointing).""No, that's not a student section. A student section is where you stand up and do chants and cheer."

A conversation overheard between two students walking by on the sidewalk after the game:"What's going on tonight? Why are there all these cars?""I don't know. Maybe a basketball game or something."

I really like the role that Aitor is starting to take on. He's been coming in as a high-energy defensive pest, and also providing some no-nonsense minutes at point guard, giving Alec a rest from time to time.

Aside from rebounding, I thought the Pilots' defense was really strong in the first half especially. A lot of energy and focus and talking among the players.

When Hartwich came in for the first time in the game, Rev called his name and he jumped up off the bench, sprinted to the scorer's table, and then sprinted up and down the court. He was talking to his teammates, and just playing really hard and with a lot of passion. As a fan, I really appreciated his approach to the game, especially coming in cold off the bench.

van der Mars looked angry at one point early in the game! I mentioned to my buddy that someone must have slapped him just before tip because he was playing with a fire that you don't see from him every time out. Loved when he ripped down one particular defensive board, no one else was getting to that one.

NPN touched on my other observations...no Tyson (again) and Aitor playing well in his seven minutes!

Last night was the first conference home game with school back in session. It was also the lowest attendance of the season: 1244. Even lower than the 1pm Monday game against Lewis and Clark on December 22.

Terry Cahill wrote:van der Mars looked angry at one point early in the game!!

The game "plan" was to come out playing fierce, angry defense after the lack of emotion at LMU and the defensive lapses at PU.

I think we are all finding that playing any of the nine other teams in the WCC is very, very tough. In a number of preseason games the Pilots were able to play lock-down defense for periods of time....that just hasn't been the case in WCC play....except, perhaps, against SCU.

Both teams last night had a chance to pull away, but missed shots and free throws for UOP, especially in the first half held them back, while UP's missed free throws and lack of defensive rebounding almost stopped them from WINNING the game.

NoPoNeighbor wrote:Great Neon Night promotion here at Chiles. the only ones participating are the Pacific Tigers. major blunder by the athletic dept.

What made it worse was the announcer berating the students that did show up.

I think the students should respond by wearing Neon to wear black day.

Worse than the student section last night was the fan who sat behind me during the second half (I should have just sat in my regular seat.) I'm pretty sure he was a student a few years ago when the primary chants where "Hey number 2, you suck". The worst part was he would wait to make said chant until Alec, who also wears number 2, had the ball. I should have said something to him, but figured you can't fix stupid.

1. The foul on Philipp was NOT a foul. Philipp has a very long wingspan, and in the opposing player's attempt to pull himself around Philipp's full extension by grabbing Phillip's waist, he ran his face into Phillip's right elbow area....but barely made contact before falling in a heap on the floor.

2. The probable reason the PA guy was allegedly antagonistic towards the students was because he was the only one I could spot (except the UOP players and staff) who was wearing neon. Probably had to go out an buy a shirt on Thursday as it seems doubtful that a yellowish/green neon shirt would be a part of one's every day wardrobe.

Lesson for the athletic department: Do not do a "promotion" if the following conditions exist:

1) You do nothing to promote the "promotion"2) The opposing team will be participating in the promotion by default, simply by virtue of wearing their regular uniforms3) Fans will only be able to participate in the "promotion" if they purchase special clothing that they almost certainly do not already own

DoubleDipper wrote:1. The foul on Philipp was NOT a foul. Philipp has a very long wingspan, and in the opposing player's attempt to pull himself around Philipp's full extension by grabbing Phillip's waist, he ran his face into Phillip's right elbow area....but barely made contact before falling in a heap on the floor.

Exactly!!! So what were they reviewing at the monitor then? Whether or not the non-foul should be upgraded to a flagrant non-foul?

Terry Cahill wrote:You know what else wasn't a foul? The final one on van der Mars.

I just finished reviewing that foul over and over in slow motion....and yeah, that call was marginal at best, but as Thomas was working sideways his ample shorts were flapping so much that it sorta, coulda, looked like he mighta given the PG a little pelvic thrust has he was attempting to turn the corner going for the hoop.

As I mentioned immediately after the game....why was Thomas going all the way to the 3-point arc to guard UOP's center? The center was obviously of little threat out there, and when Alec got caught-up by the center's ball screen and Thomas had to cut-off the PG's drive to the baseline he picked up the foul.

As I said, marginal at best, and less of a foul than occurred 5 seconds earlier when UOP's center used his non-dribbling arm to keep Thomas away from him. It seemed as though the smaller refs were giving the benefit of the doubt to the smaller players.

Thank you students for showing up tonight! You make all the difference in the environment for the team!

Finishing at the rim. Again. I know SMC plays very good & physical difference, but we couldn't hit a thing even when we had better looks. Had we been able to make some shots, the game was there for the taking. Then again, if we weren't hot from 3, it would have been ugly early.

PilotNut wrote:Thank you students for showing up tonight! You make all the difference in the environment for the team!

Finishing at the rim. Again. I know SMC plays very good & physical difference, but we couldn't hit a thing even when we had better looks. Had we been able to make some shots, the game was there for the taking. Then again, if we weren't hot from 3, it would have been ugly early.

Unbelievable how nobody could buy a basket tonight, even when the shots were not contested. It was never going to happen with a shooting percentage in the 30s the whole game.